CHICAGO – Mets GM Steve Phillips was a passenger in a car that was involved in an accident on its way to LaGuardia Airport yesterday. He suffered a mildly strained neck and a banged head (on the rear-view mirror), but it would take a lot more than that for him to miss his appointed rounds with other GMs.

Phillips remains dedicated to getting a reliever, and he is more interested in getting the best arm available rather than specifically a lefty. He said he thought he would be able to make a deal today, but also said he would be comfortable standing pat. He is also pursuing an outfielder and has talked to the Rockies about a deal involving Brian McRae for Darryl Hamilton.

According to a NL source familiar with those talks, the Rockies were leaning away from making that deal, but that could change in the final day of the trading period, which ends at midnight tonight.

Phillips likes Rockies’ relievers Curt Leskanic and Chuck McElroy, but the source said it was unlikely the GM would be able to pry either one away from Colorado, especially if the Mets continue to offer Rigo Beltran and Luis Lopez, both of whom the Rockies are cold on.

The source said he wasn’t confident anything would go down between the two teams, but Phillips talked to Rockie GM Bob Gebhard again yesterday and things could change. He said the Mets were interested in Darryl Kile a month ago but not any more and have not made a request for Pedro Astacio or Jerry Dipoto.

Phillips, who stayed in his Chicago hotel room to make calls yesterday, is looking at a plethora of relievers from around baseball. As for the accident, he said the car he was in slammed into another car on the Grand Central Parkway. The other car was “obliterated.” A third car was hit, too.

“It was like, ‘Look out, look out, look out, Boom!'” he said. “The driver will be optioned to Norfolk.” *The Mets are 62-42, 20 games over .500 for the first time since they finished 91-71 to end the 1990 season. The last time they were this good after 104 games was 1988 when they were 63-41. They are 56-1 when leading after eight innings.

Bobby Valentine said that despite Masato Yoshii’s terrible performance he would not be going to the bullpen immediately. Valentine said Kenny Rogers’ sore right hamstring was more of an issue and Yoshii might be needed to start for him Wednesday.